What is ceramic tourmaline? Why is it used rather than actual tourmaline?

Both ceramic and natural tourmaline are pyroelectric and piezoelectric, generating negative ions upon heating or under pressure.  

Tourmaline ceramic is baked with clay, tourmaline powder, volcanic rocks finely milled to micronized powder, ores, stones, and minerals. It is mixed with water and shaped into disks or hexagons. The disks are then heated to 1300° C to remove all impurities and then baked like standard ceramics. 

These tourmaline ceramics are widely used to generate FIR heat and negative ions, and they are rather cheap. It is much cheaper to make a ceramic disk than to cut the natural stone disk, especially for a stone such as a tourmaline, where the bigger stones are quite rare and can be crushed when processed.

For healing purposes, there is no big difference between natural or ceramic tourmaline. But the shape is what makes a big difference. Some MediCrystal mats are built with flat or camber-shaped disks or hexagons. They may have even higher than the natural stones’ output of Ions and FIR Rays. Other MediCrystal mats are built with natural black tourmaline or a mixture of both.

Also, the baking process allows one to add different functional ingredients, modifying the tourmaline’s properties. Such minerals and ores as yellow ochre, elvan, charcoal, and other powders are added to enhance tourmaline’s powers.

Really both natural and ceramic tourmaline is used in our mats and pillows. When a specific shape or composition of ceramic is necessary, it is the preferred choice. 

In all other cases, the preferable choice would be natural black tourmaline, crushed to 3-9 mm size and tumbled in drum machines to flatten the sharp edges.